Pi Day, March 14, Celebrated by Students across the Country

Heather Metallides, Director of Science and Health at Waltham High School in Waltham, Mass., accepts apple pies in honor of Pi Day (March 14, or 3.14) courtesy of Raytheon Company. Recognition of Pi Day is a part of the company's MathMovesU® initiative that encourages kids to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

"It’s a celebration of nerdiness," said Christopher Perez, president of the university's math club. "Pi literally shows up everywhere -- in science, in math and nature. A circle is such a fundamental concept."

At the San Francisco Exploratorium, the birthplace of Pi Day, staff installed a "pi shrine" to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of the day. They also organized a pi parade and held seminars about the importance of the number.

In addition to describing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, the number is also used to calculate a circle’s area and has multiple purposes in trigonometry, physics, statistics, cosmology, and fluid dynamics, to name a few.

Mathematicians have been attempting to understand pi for thousands of years. Greek mathematician Archimedes figured out that pi was slightly bigger than 22/7 through the use of geometrical techniques.